Urali Gounder

Personal appearance and physical features

The following description of Mala Adiyars of the lower Periyar valley by Mr. A.M Sawyer is equally applicable to the Urali:

In stature and physique, colour, facial appearance, dress, habits, language, customs, and manners, the Mala Adiyars or Mountain Slaves of the Lower Periyar valley resemble the Uralis of Neriyamaganalam more than any other of the eight principal hill tribes inhabiting the hill-forest of Travancore. Of middle height, they are fairly thick set, of dark-brown colour, with brownish-to–black eyes, curly hair, flat nose and of protruding upper lips, preceding for head, and chins, prominent cheek bones, and generally smooth faces. Both men and women wear the hair long; either loose or knotted on the top of the head. Men generally allow their hair to grow, the face alone being occasionally shaven. They are tolerably cleanly and observe regularity in bathing.

Uralis are short and long-headed with a medium to broad nasal profile. Their faces are long and narrow and can be included in the Negrito stock. The racial composition of the population of the state through the ages has been studied by cultural anthropologists and several speculative theories have been propounded. The Negrito element is pointed out as the earliest racial strain in the population of Kerala as well as of south India in general. Hill tribes such as the Kadar, the Kanikkaran, the Malapandarams, the Muthuvans, the Ullatans, the Urali, the Paniyasetc, who live in the forests of Kerala state even today, are said to be representatives of the Negrito type. Most of these tribes have curly hair, black skin, a round head, a broad nose and wear the comb in common with similar peoples in other parts of the world.^[3]

Dress and ornaments

Men wrap themselves with two pieces of cloth, one for the upper body and another longer piece for the lower part of the body, reaching from the hip to the knees. Women also use two pieces of cloth in their dressing. They are trim in appearance. Males wear rings of brass, or sometimes of silver, on their fingers and toes. Wreaths of beads from fifteen to thirty in number are worn on the neck as an ornament. Women wear what is known as a katumani, which is composed of rings of brass or lead.^[4]

Food and drink

Rice and meat form the chief articles of food. The paddy used to cultivate rice barely sustains them for six months in the year. A large portion of the rice that is grown is exchanged for clothing, salt and other commodities from the low country. For the remaining half of the year, the Urali are forced to live on what they can gather from the forest, whether in the form of wild game or in the form of roots, nuts, and fruits. The buffalo and the elephant are held in great respect. Even the very approach of a buffalo is most religiously avoided. They sometimes, but rarely, keep cows for their milk. They rear fowls which also serve them a good deal in the absences of corn. The morning drink or kadi is essential, but tea supplemented by roots and fruits seems to have displaced it.

Marriage

The choice of the bride and bridegroom is left to the parents. Tali is used as the marriage tie. The elders of the bridegroom's family, with cloth and necklace, repair to the bride's house, signify their intention, give the bride a cloth and ornaments and take her home with them. The bride becomes a wife. For every girl given away in marriage one has to be taken in return. According to this custom families with a plethora of girls have to take back as many daughters-in-law as they have girls to marry off. The result is that a Urali sometimes has to take in one or two wives, in which case, he is expected to live away from his parental home and work for his numerous wives. Another evil resulting from this custom is the undesirable increase of lifelong bachelors. The Urali contract alliance with the Ulladans and in rare instances with the Muthuvans. Widow remarriage is not prohibited.

Customs and ceremonies

The new-crop or the puttari is religiously observed by use of a puja and a feast. During the beginning of the harvest they use a puja, a hollow dry reed with pebbles in it serving as a bell. This puja is accompanied by a sumptuous feast amidst great rejoicing and revelry. The Urali is most punctilious in the performance of these ceremonies and would rather starve for some days than relinquish his cherished ceremonies. When one falls ill no doctor or medicine is used, except charms and incantations. Men are sometimes supposed to be under the influence of ghosts when suffering certain diseases (mental and nervous), and the supposed devil is exorcised by these mantrams and charms. Sorcerers are supposed to derive the divine afflatus (divine ispiration) by a period of apprenticeship under their forefathers who are believed to assume the anthropomorphic form of a maiden and teach the secret doctrine as a panacea for all ills.

The natal rites are rather tedious. During confinement a woman is segregated in a secluded corner, in a hut built for the purpose. Here she is lodged for a period of twelve days. Then for another shorter term of five days she is brought nearer home and located in a similar hut. She is considered impure for twenty days after childbirth, so much so, that she is not allowed to touch even the roof of the house. The tank in which she bathes is considered irremediably polluted. A special pool of water is designed for this purpose called pattu-vellam. When they camp out, the Urali scrupulously avoid wayside tanks or pools, being afraid of its possible pollution in the past. They also consider the proximity of a pulaya polluting.

The husband observes pollution for three days on the birth of the first child. The wife’s relatives, however, have to observe five days pollution. On the eighteenth day after birth, an elder member of the family is accorded the privilege of naming the child and boring its ear. The child, when it is able to walk safely on the ground, has the crown of its head shaved into a kudumi(a tuft of hair).^[5]

Funeral rites

The Urali bury their dead at a distance from their dwelling places. This is one of the chief distinctions between them and their namesakes of Madura and Trichinopoly, who cremate their dead. Every relative is expected, as a last tribute to the dead, to throw a new cloth on the corpse. A shed is erected as a mark of respect to the deceased, within which are placed an offering of boiled rice, betel, nuts, and his chopping knife. After seven years an offering of food and drink is served to the soul. The death pollution lasts for sixteen days.

Inheritance and occupation

The Urali are marumakkathayis. Agriculture and hunting chiefly occupy their attention. Agriculture is of a migratory nature and their huts, which they take from place to place in quest of fresh fields for cultivation, are called pantals. When not involved in agricultural labour they catch birds for their food. They are adept at catching elephants and are often employed by the Government to do so. They are clever huntsmen and are deeply attached to their dogs. They are, like the Kanikkars, exempt from taxation, but in return they render some assistance to the government in keeping watch over government plantations, and cardamom gardens. They make excellent reed mats.

Language and education

The Urali speak a kind of pure Tamil, but those who have had the chance of moving in higher circles or of receiving education, speak a pure form of it. The name most common among women is kannaki, and those men are kolampan, manikkam, etc. The initiative to educate these hill tribes seems to have been undertaken originally by missionaries. The late Rev. Henry Baken, one of the earliest of the Church Missionary Society missionaries of Kottayam (1818-1843), devoted his labours in the hilly tracts of North Travancore with some success. His attempts to open a school were successful, and after his retirement in 1843, the mantle fell on his son, Rev. Henry Baker Junior, who successfully maintained the school established by his father for a period of five years. But the unfortunate death of this missionary brought the school to an untimely close. However, subsequent Christian philanthropists have taken up the work again. As the result there are now two schools at Mekkanam under their supervision and attended by a good number of boys. Many of the Urali can read and write.

Character

The Urali are characterized by honesty, simplicity and straightforwardness in their dealings. They serve as good forest guides to strangers. They respect parental authority.

A.A.D. Luiz

A.A.D. Luiz’s book The Tribes of Kerala is a study exploring the customs and culture of a class of people of whom very little is known to the world. The author discusses the origin and growth of social structure, religious ways, economic life and the institution of marriage of the aboriginals.^[6]

Religious practices

Edward Thurston makes short references about Gods; however religious practices are described in detail. The Urali worshipped mainly Sivan, Ayyappan and Devi. They celebrated the Sivarathri. On the Sivarathri night, sacrifices are offered to their family Gods and on the following day, all the men of the village go out hunting. They have a head shikari (huntsman), called kavettaikaran, who receives every animal which is killed, cuts off its head, and breaks its legs. The head is given to the man who killed the animal, and the rest is shared among the caste men. The Uralis worship a variety of minor deities,and sacrifice sheep and goats to Palrayan. They observe two anmal festivals. Thai nomu is when the whole house is cleaned and margosa (Azadirachta indica) twigs and spikes of Achyranthes aspera are tied together, and placed in front of the house over the roof, or struck into the roof overhanging the entrance. A sumptuous repast eaten. This ceremony takes place in the month Thali (December–January). In the month Vyasi (march-April) a large trough is placed close to a well and filled with a mixture of salt and water. The cattle, decorated with leaves and flowers, are brought, one by one, to the trough, and made to drink the salt water.

Westermarck defines religion as "a belief in, and a respectable attitude towards, a supernatural being on whom man feels dependent, and to whose will he makes an appeal in his worship". With primitive man, "religion is a part of his custom. It is his whole custom." He feels fear in the presence of certain mysterious supernatural powers and a being who must be propitiated or conciliated to avert ill-will. The hill tribes of Travancore have a hierarchy of deities and spirits, the sun, the ancestor spirits, village deities and spirits, hunting deities and tramp spirits. The worship of the sun is confined to the Muthuvans, the Urali, and the Kanikkar. The Urali recognize the sun as the creator of the universe and the father of all souls.

The religion of the tribes was animism, totemism and crude polytheism, but due to the influence of Hinduism such ancient faiths and forms of worship have more or less been displaced. Tribal society treats the supernatural with more fear than reverence and is afraid of its powers. Their very religion and ceremonies consist in propitiating the gods to avert evil and ill-will. Very few pray for benefits. Tribes believe in the existence of the soul after death and in the rebirth of the good as humans, and others as animals. Their great aspiration is to control the evil spirits (bhoothams) and if possible even the deities. Heaven is always thought of and described as a beautiful place somewhere in the high skies with plenty to eat and drink. Regarding hell and its location they have no comments to offer.

They worship: Shata, Kali, Siva, Vishnu, Subramania, Ayyaapan, Sylvan deities, Malavazhies, Mariamma, Kannimars and sprits of their ancestors. Kanikkars, Paniyans, Koragas and Karimpalans consider the spirits of ancestors as their domestic gods. Ancestor worship is one of the great branches of mankind. According to Tyler, the dead ancestor; now passed as deity, goes on protecting his family and receiving suit from them as of old. Ancestors are therefore considered as kindly patron spirits, at least to their own kinsfolk and worshippers. Ancestor worship is prevalent among most of the primitive tribes of Travancore. A few offering of milk, rice, toddy, and ghee are made. The Uralies make offerings to ancestors in January. A pongal is offered by the side of clothes, beads, rings, and bangles. Clothes are to propitiate male ancestors, and bangles and beads, female ancestors. The prayer is to effect, "Oh parents, grandparents and great grandparents, protect us. We shall propitiate you every year." Special prayers are also offered to the manes of departed ancestors.^[7]

They have numerous gramadevatas, and most of them relate to localities. Kali (Durga) a particularly malignant and revengeful goddess, and hermaphrodite deities are popular. Kannikaras invoke Sage Agastya and other Sage Valmiki in their rituals. Some tribes, especially the Muthuvans, Uralies and Koragas worship the sun. Many a god is known by the name of the location of a tribal settlement. Their faith is strong and practical, but very little is based on hope. Many groups believe that their gods could be made to intervene in their affairs by divination. Diviners run into a trance (frenzy) and disclose causes for the displeasure of the gods and suggest methods for appeasing them. While in a trance they are believed to have divine inspiration.

Oracles are popular and held in esteem. Animism as practiced by the tribes incorporates the belief in a soul and advocates the worship of inanimate objects. Caves, rocks, trees and many other objects are believed to have supernatural powers and are worshipped even now by limited numbers. It is definitely the object itself that is worshipped. (The worship of deities is contrary to animistic beliefs.) Primitive Meriah sacrifice has been replaced by the slaughter of animals, and Hook swinging of a human corpse has been substituted with dolls. Kurumbas, Irulars, Paniyans and many others perform live sacrifice, and what is offered is eaten after the ceremony. After a hunt the heart and liver of the find is sliced and offered to the hunting deities. Women who hunt, work and wander with men are treated as unclean, and prevented from participating in religious ceremonies. All groups have a Pujari (priest), a Mantravadi (magician), and a Kaniyan (astrologer). Kanikkars and Uralies call them Plathies.

Settlement patterns

The primitive tribes of Travancore lived in the region of bamboo and reed. Natural shelters, namely caverns, overhanging rocks, holes in the ground, and hollow trunks may have been the abode of primitive man. The rigidity of the village organization of the primitive tribes is due to their long isolation, their narrow outlook on life, and close inter-marriage for countless generations.

Urali live in wild life infested areas and their settlements can be identified by the Madoms (tree or pile huts) in addition to the ones on the ground and the presence of dolmens erroneously described as treasure-troves. The ambukallu or the flat stone resting on the top of vertical supports indicates the exact location of the grave of an ancestor. They generally live in small groups of the families called kudi(village). Each village is an independent unit, and consists of an average of ten to fifteen families bound together by the idea of self-protection. The Urali huts are isolated. and the settlements have four to six huts. The structure on the ground is made of bamboo, reeds and branches and is used during the day. The stronger and picturesque construction is on the top of a strong tree with a ladder leading to it. This is chiefly the sleeping apartments, and keeps them safe from being trampled by wandering elephants. They keep the interior, and surroundings of their huts clean. Most of them use enamel and brass utensils and dried gourd containers for storing honey and water. Each hamlet has a common tree-houses reserved for women in menses. There is a common tree-house as granary.

Headmen are called Kani or Velan and the office descends from father to son. In case there is no son, or he proves to be incompetent, the nephew succeeds. Uralis respects their headman but no contribution is made for his maintenance. The Velan of Arakulam was reputed to be conversant with various forms of black magic. Some claim to know the Odi cult and mantrams. They are respected and their decisions and arbitrations are accepted, even though the primitive form of devotion, respect and the conception of their infallibility has disappeared. At present the headman presides over the council (Panchayat) of elders which take decisions. He is consulted before finalising marriage arrangements, and is expected to attend marriages and funerals. The primitive custom of contributions of the headman and his wife has disappeared, but thatching the hut of the headman is done by some tribes even now. Each hamlet has a plathi or medicine-man that is responsible for the good conduct of the men.

The Uralis still follow the tradition of muppans. The head of a local clan is commonly called Muppan. They believe that this title was awarded by the Poonjar royal family. The title is traditionally limited to the same family handed down from one generation to the other. The eldest son of a Muppan becomes the heir of the title Muppan and his wife is revered by the whole community; their word is final and their orders are always obeyed.

Homes (huts) of tribes known as Chelas, Chittaries, Pathies, and Kudies are made of bamboo and thatched with leaves, straw or grass. They also live in caves, under overhanging rocks, in pits in the ground, and in the hollows of big trees. The floor of the huts is often level with the ground. Windows usually consist of holes in the sides. Those who live and cultivate in wildlife infested areas have Macahans (pile dwellings), and Madoms (huts on high trees). Nowadays their houses are roofed with asbestos or tin sheets. In the past, houses were mostly thatched. Most of their resources were collected from the forest. They besmeared their homes with pastes of soil or clay. They lived together in colonies which were traditionally known as Uralikudi. In modern terminology it is known as a "scheduled tribe colony". This change of names is to facilitate the implementation of projects like the "integrated tribal development programme". This also facilitates the utilization of plan funds from the local governments and the conduct of gramma sabha.

Land use

Agriculture is considered as the main occupation of the Urali tribes. They use land mainly for cultivation of agricultural products including: rice, cholam, tapioca, ginger, cardamom and other consumable products as conditions permit. Group farming has prevailed among Urali; they seldom venture out to farm as individuals. All the others were at one time engaged in Ponam (shifting) cultivation, and the justification for a shift was to have a better harvest. In the absence of impediments they moved regularity every year, and never returned to the same spot before six years had elapsed.

They sway of customs looks more powerful among people in the earlier stages of culture. The Urali lead a pure life during the period of early agricultural operations from December to April. The migratory habits of the jungle tribes still continue among the Urali.

Rituals

Traditionally Uralis were Hindus. Their Important deities were Sastha, Ayappan and Bhagavathi. Moreover, they worship their ancestors. They have a separate temple for themselves which is devoted to Devi. It is a temple of great legacy. They have their own unique rituals, belief and art forms. But as time passed, much of it has become part of history. Some of their rituals are still alive. Notable among them are Urali tullal, meenabharani and karutha vavu. Urali tullal is a religious practice. It is an aggressive dance to placate the favourite deity. It is a rural folk dance. As a solo dance during tullal the dancer chants certain sounds. When the dancer reaches peak of ecstasy, he or she becomes almost unconscious. Bhalasruthy is also known as uraliparayuka. It is almost similar to the tullal of an oracle or velichappad. In the past, it was conducted only occasionally. Nowadays it has almost become extinct among the Uralis clan. The chief reason is that the new generation is almost indifferent to their rituals, and there is a considerable decrease in the number of Urali.

Kozhiuettu was a traditional ritual which is no longer followed by Uralis. At the time of their ancestors it was one of the most fruitful and popular offerings to the deity. It was offered to the deity for the gratification of personal prayers to cure disease to help dreams materialise. In gratitude for the fulfillment of prayers, cocks and hens were offered in the temples. It was offered as Kuruthi at the time of worship. This provided great contentment to believers.

At the time of new moon, popularly known as Karutha vavu, they offered worship to the departed souls. They conducted special pooja and worshiped in temples. They also left a sumptuous meal for the departed souls with delicious dishes including plantain and jaggers, most of them cooked directly on the flames. This is a unique ritual of Uralis which is still practised.

L.A Krishna lyer

L.A. Krishna lyer, son of L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer, was an officer in the Forest Administration of Travancore, the southernmost Indian state. In 1937 he was detailed by the state government to compile the same kind of ethnographic survey for Travancore that his father had produced for the native states of Cochin and Mysore. The first volume appeared in 1938. Some of the materials in them, based on the author’s long experience as a forest ranger, have been published previously as periodical articles or as contributions to the ethnographic notes in the 1931 Census of Travancore. The work is in the tradition of the regional Tribes and Castes series which now affords information on most of the political divisions of the country.